Council speaker accepts big donations. But for what?

A charity founded and represented by Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's campaign consultant got a major funding increase this year.

When Melissa Mark-Viverito was raising money for her successful City Council speaker bid in late 2013, she voluntarily imposed a donation cap for contributions: $3,850. Yet in recent months, Ms. Mark-Viverito has begun accepting up to $4,950, the maximum amount for a run for citywide office.

A source with knowledge of Ms. Mark-Viverito's fundraising, however, said her recent acceptance of the larger contributions should not be taken as an indication she is eyeing a citywide race. In fact, according to the source, Ms. Mark-Viverito had previously eschewed $4,950 donations to signal that she was not seeking to run for mayor, comptroller or public advocate in 2017, but now feels comfortable that it has become clear.What the Manhattan Democrat will do, however, is anyone's guess. Term limits prevent her from staying in the council beyond 2017, and all three citywide officeholders are expected to run for re-election to their current posts that year. So is Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. Ms. Mark-Viverito represents a district that includes parts of Manhattan and the Bronx.One fan of the speaker is trying to draft her to run for retiring Rep. Charles Rangel's seat in 2016—but Ms. Mark-Viverito has said she has no current plans to do so.

Council observers note, however, that Ms. Mark-Viverito has been speaking on on a number of federal issues, such as immigration reform. A number of candidates are expected to run for Mr. Rangel's seat in 2016. It represents a traditionally African-American district, including Harlem, but was redrawn in 2012 and is now 55% Latino and just 27% black. The speaker is of Puerto Rican descent.

Federal regulations do not allow candidates to transfer money from city accounts to federal accounts for congressional races. On rare occasions, candidates have tried to work around that by refunding money from city accounts to donors, who then make equivalent donations for a congressional race.

At this point, Ms. Mark-Viverito does not seem to be stockpiling funds. She raised less than $47,000 over the past six months and spent nearly $44,000, finishing the period with less than $4,000 in her campaign account. (The spending included $20,000 in payments to law firm Ballard Spahr and $9,500 to lobbying and political-consulting firm Pitta Bishop.)

In late 2013, as Ms. Mark-Viverito was running for speaker, she spent heavily on the legislative leadership campaign through her current campaign committee, Viverito NY, to help her line up the 26 or more votes needed from council members to win. Fundraising had not played such a prominent role in previous races for council speaker.

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